Chapter 372: _I Don't Need To Kill You

Elian’s POV

*****

“Councillor Morwen?” Kyren snorted, voice divided with disbelief, amusement and annoyance all at once. “Well, this is a surprise.”

Morwen’s expression remained the same—neutral. Almost robotic.

[I’m detecting traces of deep mental manipulation within her.]

‘Yeah, it’s kinda obvious from where I’m standing.’ Elian kept his guards up. ‘Something is off. She was stubborn as hell at the negotiating table, but… I never saw her as someone who’d go this far for the High Matron.’

“Really though,” Kyren continued, spreading out his arms. “Remember what happened last time. You and your other councillors combined didn’t stand a chance against me then. What makes you think you can take on all three of us now?”

Silence.

The Council witch didn’t seem at all triggered by the Rogue king’s words.

[Well, I guess rage baiting her to a quick defeat is out of the question.]

‘I need to get back inside that crystal,’ Elian glanced back at the glowing mass of Divinity. ‘I could feel it. The moon goddess’ will. She was… calling to me.’

[Which is why you should be careful. We don’t want the goddess who’s been dead for millennia to mistake you as some sort of anomaly who needs erasing. Which technically you are.]

‘Shut up.’

“I’m a much different witch,” Morwen finally spoke again, “from the one you fought when you besieged our capital.”

The Lord of the Dark Lands sneered. “Siege? I was after a bloody criminal seeking refuge. One who threatened the entire continent.”

“Garrick.”

“Yes. Remember that? Remember how you and your stupid council still let him go scot free after?” Kyren mocked. “Useless. It all makes sense now. I underestimated your undying loyalty to your High Matron. You’re practically a puppet.”

[He has no idea…]

Elian spun back to the Divine Crystal.

His violet eyes gleamed with a faint silver hue.

Slowly, very slowly, he reached for the crystal with one hand. Time seemed to slow down for what felt like several seconds.

All it took for Morwen was one.

“Enough.”

Transcendent Core magic descended on the trio, wrapping around them like the invisible hands of giants. Elian’s mouth parted open in shock, arms twitching beside him as he moved his head to the witch.

Morwen had a hand raised, each finger painted black. “Such impudence,” her head tilted. “The High Matron shall go on with her plan for this continent whether you like it or not. Every war. Every atrocity. All the grief… they’d all be cleansed. Permanently.”

Elian managed to move his eyes from Kyren and Lucian. They struggled too but it was clear they were getting close to breaking free from her restraint.

“Of… course, you’d think that.” The Omega squeezed out the words, every bone cracking as he forced himself against the pressuring force. “You’ve been fed all her desires and lies for how long now? Most of your boringly long life?”

For the first time since she attacked them, the councillor’s perfectly calm mask twitched.

[Oh. I guess rage bait does have some effects.]

The invisible force tightened further, driving the air from his lungs and sending a deep, grinding ache through every joint as if the very marrow of his bones had been seized and twisted.

Kyren snarled somewhere to his left, while Lucian’s breathing grew laboured yet steady, the Alpha King already testing the edges of the restraint with measured surges of Alpha aura.

Morwen’s black-painted fingers flexed once, and the pressure became almost unbearable, yet she continued speaking as though nothing of consequence had occurred.

“She will cleanse it all,” the councillor said, the words rolling out with the inevitability of a verdict long decided. “Every scar this continent has carved into itself will be scoured away so that something cleaner can rise from the ashes. And once Evaros is remade in her image, the gift will not stop at these shores. It will reach further, until every land that still clings to its old, rotting ways understands the mercy of her—”

She never finished the thought.

A sudden flare of deep crimson tore through the desert as Kyren finally shattered the binding force around himself and unleashed a concentrated blast of pure destructive energy straight at her chest.

The attack should have reduced most beings to ash, yet Morwen simply raised her free hand and caught the seething red mass as though it were a physical object, her fingers closing around the volatile power with clinical precision.

She squeezed, and the crimson light began to darken, the colour leaching away until the entire construct turned a dense, oily black that pulsed with contaminated malice. The corrupted energy then detonated outward in a controlled wave that forced Kyren back several steps, his boots scraping across the sand as he absorbed the rebound without fully yielding ground.

Elian did not wait to see how the exchange would develop.

The moment the pressure on his own body lessened even fractionally he lunged toward the Divine Crystal, both palms slamming against its surface with enough force that the impact shook his shoulders. The familiar pull of the crystal’s interior began to claim him at once, the silvery luminescence rising to meet his touch like living water.

Behind him, Lucian’s voice cut through the chaos. “Kyren, keep her occupied! Do not let a single one of her attacks reach us.”

A firm hand settled on Elian’s shoulder an instant later, the contact carrying more than simple physical support.

Lucian’s consciousness flowed along the bond, a steady current of celestial strength that wrapped around Elian’s own presence and accompanied him as the crystal’s interior swallowed them both.

The transition was seamless yet jarring, the exterior world vanishing in a rush of silver light until they stood once more within the vast, fluid expanse of the Divine Crystal’s heart, where the water-like medium of pure divinity stretched in every direction.

Amara waited at its centre, already surrounded by a radiance that had grown noticeably brighter and more oppressive since their last confrontation.

She did not greet them with words. The silver light around her body intensified the moment they appeared, expanding outward in concentric waves that pressed against their senses like a physical tide.

Elian and Lucian moved as one, drawing on the resonance of their bond to weave defensive barriers and offensive strikes in rapid succession, yet every assault they launched was met and redirected with effortless precision.

Amara’s power had deepened; the moon goddess’s lingering will that clung to her form now amplified her every gesture until the very medium of the crystal seemed to answer her rather than them.

Lucian’s energy blades carved through the water only to be turned aside, while Elian’s violet-tinged energy lances dissolved before they could fully form.

The struggle intensified with each exchange, their combined efforts gradually forcing Amara to expend more of her strength, yet the silver glow continued to brighten until it bordered on blinding.

Then she closed the distance in a single fluid surge, one hand locking around Lucian’s throat with crushing force. The Alpha King stiffened but did not cry out, his own hands rising to clamp around her wrist even as the pressure threatened to collapse his windpipe.

“There we are.” Amara’s expression remained almost serene as she regarded him.

“I’m impressed. You wield the power of a Celestial sovereign so well for an Alpha King who hasn’t seen half a century of life,” she observed, her voice carrying through the crystalline medium with unnatural clarity. “Yet even that will not be enough to alter what has already been set in motion.”

Elian felt the bond flare with Lucian’s pain and determination, the shared sensation nearly buckling his knees.

He poured everything he could into a counter-attack, forcing Amara to release her grip for a fraction of a second, yet the respite was brief.

Amara moved again before either of them could fully recover, the silver water around her responding to every movement like an extension of her own body. Elian barely managed to raise a barrier before the impact sent him spiralling backwards through the endless crystalline space.

His body twisted, violet energy flickering as he forced himself upright.

But something was different.

The water beneath him.

The countless fragments of light floating within it.

They weren’t just part of the Divine Crystal.

They were pieces.

Individual pieces.

Elian’s eyes narrowed as a memory surfaced.

Aurora.

The fractured time dimension Amara had hidden her away in—it had been an endless space filled with countless crystal fragments, each one containing a different frozen moment.

They had destroyed the pieces one by one, until there was nothing left for Amara to hide her behind.

His breathing steadied.

[Analysis complete. Host has identified potential structural weakness.]

The System immediately began scanning.

[Searching for individual divine fragments within current environment.]

“Sweet buns?” Lucian called, still keeping his stance between Elian and Amara. “Whatever you’re thinking, I hope it’s a good idea.”

Elian almost smiled. “For once? It actually is.”

The High Matron’s expression changed. Only slightly.

But he saw it.

She knew.

“Moon blessed.” Her voice carried a warning for the first time.

The Omega ignored her.

He slammed his palm against the crystalline water beneath him.

“I don’t need to destroy you or the crystal.”

Energy exploded from his body, spreading through the entire space.

“I just need to destroy what’s holding it together.”

[Multiple divine fragments detected.]

[Beginning targeted collapse.]

Amara moved instantly, the calm mask shattering.

The entire space shook as she surged forward, silver light erupting behind her like wings. Lucian intercepted her before she could reach him, his blade appearing in his hand as he struck forward.

The weapon pierced through her side.

For the first time, Amara actually stumbled.

Lucian didn’t hesitate. “You’re not getting past me.”

The High Matron looked down at the blade with mild surprise before wrapping her fingers around it and slowly pulling it free.

The wound sealed almost immediately.

“You continue to impress me.” She tossed the blade aside and continued forward.

Lucian followed.

Every strike from the Alpha King forced her back, every collision sending waves through the Divine Crystal’s interior. He couldn’t overpower her, but he didn’t need to.

He only needed to buy Elian time.

[Fragment locations confirmed.]

The System displayed hundreds of points throughout the crystalline ocean.

Too many for any normal mage to track so quickly.

Luckily, Elian wasn’t normal anymore.

He reached deeper into the bond connecting him to Lucian, feeling the Alpha King’s strength flow into him despite the distance. Then another presence joined.

Kyren.

Even outside the crystal, the Rogue King’s energy still resonated through their connection.

All three of them… with one purpose.

Elian’s violet energy expanded.

The first fragment shattered.

Then the second.

Then dozens more.

Across the crystal’s inner world, tiny cracks appeared throughout the endless sea of divinity.

Amara noticed, expression twisting.

“No.” The space itself trembled. “You insolent little—”

The remaining fragments began collapsing faster.

The beautiful crystalline ocean around them started breaking apart, chunks of divine structure dissolving into streams of fading light.

Amara abandoned everything else.

She threw Lucian aside with enough force to send the Alpha King crashing through waves of crystal water.

Elian didn’t stop as the System continued marking every fragment.

Every weak point.

Every piece of divinity keeping Amara’s consciousness anchored.

The High Matron appeared before him, her hand descending.

Elian looked up just in time to see the full force of the strike approaching.

Then—everything disappeared in a blinding white light that swallowed the entire space.